24 Hours of LeMons Southern Discomfort 2012: We Have Winners!

With Saturday’s rain and slick surfaces giving way to sunshine and plenty of grip on Sunday, the Southern Discomfort field scorched the track with some of the quickest times of the weekend. Saturday’s second-place Mercedes- Benz 190E 2.3-16 quickly charged into the lead, and then charged even more quickly into the back end of another […]

Nick Pon

Mar 4, 2012

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With Saturday’s rain and slick surfaces giving way to sunshine and plenty of grip on Sunday, the Southern Discomfort field scorched the track with some of the quickest times of the weekend. Saturday’s second-place Mercedes- Benz 190E 2.3-16 quickly charged into the lead, and then charged even more quickly into the back end of another competitor, which ended its bid for an overall win.

The Speedycop team’s 53-foot enclosed trailer does more than haul a ridiculous fleet of LeMons cars—it has a fully functioning hardwood bowling alley, disco ball, and fog machine. Who needs a group of well-tuned, perfectly running race cars when you’ve got that?

Who says Saab is dead? With the Mercedes out of the way (but with the relentless Mazda MX3 pair of Hong Norrth running closely behind in second and third), any misstep from the leader would have dropped rbankracing.com‘s 9-3 sedan quickly down the ranks. The car and drivers performed flawlessly, however, and the Saab boys scored their second overall win—their first since 2010 when they put a 900 Turbo atop the podium.

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Speedycop’s AMC Pacer actually was one of the smoother-running team entries, although the handling left something to be desired. Guest driver Mary Harris reported that piloting the Pacer was “like driving an inflatable couch that is slowly deflating.”

Team Turbo Schnitzel wasn’t content to simply accept its ill-handling race car, and deduced that more weight in the rear would solve their issue. After the team’s first solution (pictured here) failed to impress the LeMons safety experts, the team eventually worked out a much more secure cement-block-based setup.

Upon reporting to the judges for a black-flag offense, the members of Mock Racing were informed that their Astroturf-covered Kia Sephia was crying out for a putting green. Unfazed, the team returned minutes later with a hole, a ball return made from an old intake pipe, and a marker flag for style.

The coveted Index of Effluency grand prize was up for grabs in the early running, with the Cordia, LTD, and Pacer all making a case for LeMons’ top cash award. As the day progressed, however, the Buick Reatta of Morrow’s Racing emerged from the pack. Simply showing up with a Buick Reatta—a car that LeMons staffers have openly requested—put the team on the radar, and a solid top-third finish sent them to the win. “It’s the best weekend of racing we’ve ever had,” beamed team captain Dave Morrow. After previous entries that included a twin-turbo GMC van and a totaled Bradley GT, perhaps this team had nowhere to go but up.